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Borland Software

Borland Software Corporation (NASDAQ: BORL) is the global leader in Software Delivery Optimization (SDO). With over 1,300 employees worldwide and operations in more than 20 countries, Borland has served over 80 percent of global 2000 companies with best-in-class solutions for more than 22 years. Borland turned to Angel.com’s Virtual Call Center in 2004 to help the company deliver world-class customer service to its world-class customer base.

The Challenge
While there are multitudes of hardware and software solutions available to help customer service executives manage call center operations, very few offer the three elements that matter most to both the decision-makers and users of the technology – reliability, affordability and flexibility. When Borland approached Angel.com in 2004, the company’s hardware-based Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) system, used to route and deliver incoming calls in call centers to agents, was failing the company in each of these key areas:

1. Reliability: Borland experienced many latency issues with the ACD system, including frequent outages and very little communication from the vendor surrounding those outages.
   
2. Affordability: Borland's vendor offered little or no technical support, and when it did the maintenance costs were prohibitive.
   
3. Flexibility: Making day-to-day modifications to reflect changes in the call center operation was difficult and very expensive.
   

For Gary Janos, Director of Technical Support at Borland, the problem reached far beyond the product weaknesses – the system was failing Borland’s customers. Borland’s call abandonment rate had reached nearly 20% in 2004 and the average response time increased into the 50 second range. Based on these numbers and the growing frustration with the current vendor, Janos began looking into alternative solutions.

Janos started his search with the following criteria: the new solution had to offer 99% reliability, require minimal maintenance, and provide a very short product learning curve. Borland’s time frame was short – a new solution had to be in place by the end of Q1 2005.

After looking at three providers of hosted call center solutions, Janos settled on Angel.com, saying, "It was very clear that Angel.com offered the best product with the most stability, and most importantly Angel.com’s intuitive web-based system would allow the Customer Service department to own and maintain the solution. Our IT department also participated in the process and gave Angel.com its seal of approval."

The Solution
During the decision-making process, Janos took advantage of Angel.com’s free trial of the Virtual Call Center product, which allowed him build a prototype using Borland’s actual call routing scenarios. Some of the unique requirements of the Borland Technical Support line included:

Because the Angel.com Virtual Call Center combines ACD and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) functionality into one, easy-to-use interface, Janos was able to satisfy all of these requirements within one Angel.com Voice Site. He utlilized the advanced ACD functionality to handle the initial call routing and the agent-to-agent routing, and used the IVR functionality to screen calls and collect customer data for "premium" support calls.

With the help of Angel.com, Janos and his Customer Service team built a beta system quickly and then spent the next couple of weeks learning the system and customizing it to meet Borland’s needs. Janos was thrilled with the level of support Angel.com provided through the implementation process, saying "The support that Angel.com provided made implementation very simple. I am in the support business and Angel.com provides the type of support that everyone should provide to customers."

The Results
Borland implemented its Virtual Call Center solution early in 2005. Janos reorganized the support process by implementing a Tier 1/Tier 2 approach. All customer calls now route through Tier 1 using Angel.com; if a customer calls in with a technical problem, they are manually transferred to a Tier 2 agent who is also logged into the Angel.com system. Janos points out that the switch from the previous solution to Angel.com was executed flawlessly and Borland customers picked up on the positive changes immediately.

Most importantly, Janos and Borland put their call center metrics back on track. The call abandonment rate has dropped by 67%, and Borland’s average speed of answer has improved by 44%.
Janos continues to explore other uses of Angel.com for both Borland's call center operations and other areas of the company which can benefit from the use of Angel.com's on-demand IVR capabilities. Janos sums up Borland's experience with Angel.com by saying, "The Angel.com product is clearly evolving since its conception. I am in complete control with the Angel.com solution, which means that changes that used to cost me thousands of dollars and weeks to implement now happen in real-time and without incurring any additional costs. The people at Angel.com are extremely devoted to the success of the product and extremely willing to help Borland implement a world-class solution. From a services perspective, response times have been fantastic – it's a welcoming feeling knowing that if I have a problem, the Angel.com team will be there to help."